Dear Friend,

The Optimistan Circle will bring together, in Brussels, men and women, determined to assume their citizens’ responsibilities and to use their civil power in a practical way for an insurrection of consciousness (1). These men and women believe in the possibility of a mental metamorphosis and the advent of a better world.

The Circle will be our salon of the Age of Enlightenment, the focal point for Optimism in Action, our working space for philanthropic projects and civic initiatives: Diverse in background and culture, uniformly open-minded and of generous spirit; great minds working together, from dialogue to concrete results, from thought to positive reality.

If we want our world to retain its beauty, or that it or that it becomes even more so, we have to be involved and committed. It needs a higher state of consciousness, a metamorphosis of attitude, a change in the way people think – a mental change; that a manager becomes a finer person in order to be a better manager, a shareholder becomes a finer person and a better shareholder, a grandfather a finer grandfather, a musician a finer one . . .

Our meeting in Brussels will be the start of this great shared adventure. Working together and inveighing against the inevitable cynicism: from ideas creation to practical initiatives; from dialogue to concrete results and positive reality – work of action and communication.

We have an outstanding location for our circle, at Boitsfort, in Brussels; it is in this stimulating and easy-going environment that our members will meet to agree practical steps towards the reenchantment of our existence.

In our headquarter there are salons and lounges where members can meet to read good book or newspaper. Here also, conference and meeting rooms and offices, fitted out according to the latest thinking to optimise collective contemplation.

And what else? . . . First of all, sustenance of course: there is a restaurant, next to one of Brussels’ finest terraces; open from very early morning to late evening. Here members can enjoy a delicious meal, or, with equal pleasure, a salad and a glass of water.

Secondly, and as a reminder that music is our official language (2), a piano, and last but not least, a billiard table – a fine way to relax with friends.

Our Optimistan Circle will be the Embassy of Optimistan, metaphoric State of Consciousness (3); a Representation for Confidence in the Future, the headquarters of Cultural Metamorphosis (4) and of practical action today for a world more just, more human, more beautiful, . . . finer than today.

It will be a place of inspiration for those who believe that the ethical governance of public and private affairs is a major priority; somewhere to develop the collective intelligence of new enterprise: companies and organisations striving, not just to be the best in the world, but the best for the world (6). A nucleus for philosophical thought; a centre of civic action based on our individual responsibility for the state of society and the planet.

The Optimistan Circle will actively support the international Optimists without Borders and its related associations, in particular the League of Optimists of the Kingdom of Belgium.

One hopes that one day the need for money will become obsolete, but in the meantime, waiting for the quantum leap to Beneficence which alone can replace it, the Optimistan Circle, with some reluctance, requests an annual subscription of 1000 euros. Those who subscribe now will be exempt from the admission fee of 900 euros.

The annual subscription is reduced to one third for members’ partners and for those less than 33 years of age or who in practice reside abroad. Also there is a 10% reduction for those members who agree to come to the Circle on foot, by bicycle, or with public transport.

Subscriptions will be accepted in the order they are received, and will be limited only by the capacity of the building.

This is an ambitious undertaking (6) and a fine adventure too! You will be thrilled to have been involved, and participated and supported it from the start.

Luc Simonet

1. Pierre Rabhi
2. Sofia Gubaidulina: Life reduces man into so many pieces thatink of a more important task than to help him, through music, to reestablish his spiritual unity.
3. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: As the world becomes more complex, the more it will be necessary to increase its state of consciousness.
4. Edgar Morin ‘Eloge de la métamorphose, cinq principes d’espérance’.
5. Guibert del Marmol
6. Playing small doesn’t serve the world. (Nelson Mandela)